For those who are new to social media marketing practices, there are some things that they find hard to figure out.
The items listed below are the hardest to explain to newbies:

• There is no way to control the message.
  

When you want to spread brand awareness through discussions, you need to prepare yourself to take both the positive and negative comments because you will not receive positive mentions all the time.
Take note that some of the bad press might be essentially good for your business because it will give your company the impression of being legitimate and the audience will know that you are not only trying to perk up your reputation falsely.

• Sales will not come pouring in overnight.
  

Creating accounts with Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites is not an assurance that you will be seeing an abrupt increase in your sales.
It would take some time to set-up your accounts, build your profile and maintain friends and followers.
It may not have a direct impact on your sales but surely it will improve brand awareness and improve the ranking of your site.

• What works for another may not work with your business.
  

You need to find out what would be most appropriate for your social media marketing campaign.
With a wide variety of social media to choose from, you have to study where you should focus most of your time.
Perhaps your target market might appreciate video marketing more than tweeting.
Always remember that not all strategies will work for every business.

• Continuous maintenance is necessary with social media marketing.
  

If you want your marketing campaigns to be successful, you need to monitor it constantly and pay extra attention to details.
It is not enough to post an update once a day and ask someone else to take care of your account.

• Your involvement is a must.
  

Even if there are account managers handling your marketing campaigns, you still need to be involved as much as possible and you have to understand the things going on in your account.
Just sitting back and allowing others to do whatever needs to be done is not the ideal attitude of someone who wants to be successful in his marketing efforts.
Social media marketing is a long-term plan.
You have be patient because you will not be seeing the benefits in an instant.
Never ever think that it is a quick fix because you need to keep working at it if you want success in the long run.